Genoa Report

Lntony and myself decided to hit the dam this morning, and it was very slooow. I boated 3 short eyes and Tony landed 1, of course Tony’s fish had to be the big one, again The biggest was a very nice 20″ male walleye . All were caught on catalpa orange paddletails in shallow water. The flow wasn’t too bad unless you got on the lock side, then it picked up speed. We had a good 1″ of snow covering everything in the boat , it came down hard for a couple hours. If you are going there, I would strongly recommend 4 wheel drive as the ramp is a bear to get back out of right now.

Hey AmWatson,
Thanks for the report. Had to work all weekend so couldn’t go. Driving me crazy. Will probably be up on Wed. Not sure if I’m goin to Lynxville or Genoa yet.

Good Luck!
D. Andrews

That is a tough decision between Genoa and Lynxville. For me it is quite a bit farther to Lynxville so I usually end up at Genoa I did like the setup that Lynxville has way better than Genoa. The ramps at Lynx are 10 times better and the fishing can be just as good as Genoa, once you figure things out

I got my rig out for the first time today for a few hours. Caught several walleyes and saugers; most of which were on the smaller size. Most fish were caught in 30-35 ft of water on a jig and a minnow. Lots of boats but a great day to be out. Tomorrow should be as nice with a little cloud cover and a weather system moving in tomorrow night,fishing should be hot .

My report for Genoa sounds a lot like Dresbach and Lynxville. Fishing was slow in the AM but when the sun came out in the afternoon the fishing picked up and we managed to keep a few for the pan. Most fish were caught in about 30-40 ft of water on a jig, twister tail, minnow and a stinger. Green and orange were the best colors. The biggest problem was keeping the eyes on my rod free from ice. Lots of boats and the usually adventure putting a boat in a Genoa. Not a good place when that landing freezes up and you slide your way back down. I have to believe a few vehicles end up in the river every year here.

Question: “Fishing 30-40 ft of water” Seems like last year there were some posts about fishing eyes too deep, something about pulling them out of deep water killing the smaller fish that had to be released. Anybody have any thoughts on this?

I have noticed that 35 fow seems to be the threshhold before you really start to see the air bladder problems. Some days it can happen in 30 fow as well. Lately, it seems most of the fish at Lynx and Genoa are in the deeper water and very few are caught in the shallows, so that is forcing people to continually hit the deep holes. Personally, I just hate fishing in water deeper than 30 foot. I do, but I still cringe when I pull a fish up and see the air bladder sticking out What I try to do when I see that, is to go a little shallower until you don’t see it happening. But, there will always be people who fish these deeper holes with no regard to what is happening to the fish. A lot of it is due to them simply not knowing about it. Also, in the spring when eyes are easier to catch, you get all the weekend warriors, who would normally not fish for eyes any other time. All they really know is put on a jig and minnow and jig at the dam. These people will fish at any depth it takes to get their “limit”

Thanks Wats, I know last fall when I read about this I found all these fish in 35-40 feet of water below the dam but I stayed out of there. Didn’t catch many fish either. Just wanted to do the right thing. Getting a limit isn’t important but my wife and I like to eat fish. Somebody sent me a PM and it deleted before I could read it then it happened again, so if anybody sees this try again.

Not about Genoa but more so about air sacs I have caugth fish at Prarie du Sac in 23 feet of water that blew the air sac. Of equal importance to depth is handling the fish lightly never applying pressure to the sides. Have watch bladders pop out while friends were taking them off. This hurts the fishery more than alot of fisherman think. 2 cents.

I consider myself somebody who cares a lot for the river and what it gives to us. All of the fish we caught showed no signs of being stressed in any way and swam away with no problems. I will make no apologies for how, when or where I fish. I fish for walleyes year round but it is on the weekend strictly, so to be lumped in with a group of people out to take their “limit” is unfair. Between three guys we took home four fish and could have taken a lot of smaller ones if we chose to. In fact I fished part of the morming with ringworms and k grubs with no success so I switched to a jig/minnow/twister tail with a stinger. I have fished quite a bit at Genoa the last few years and honestly have never caught a fish with its air bladder exposed, not say it does not happen but I have never seen it. All I wanted to do was share a little info not start some arguement on fishing ethics.

Belgian- For the record, I was in no way, shape, or form, implying you were “guilty” of what I described in my last post. Being that you regularly fish for eyes, you can understand the type of people I am talking about Please do not think I was slamming your ethics, because you have made quite a few informative posts on the site, and from that I can tell you are a an ethical guy. I also do not think you should have to justify your actions if you think they are correct to your personal thoughts. What I said earlier was geared toward the folks that repeatedly fish the scour holes. They are at every dam every spring, looking for the easy fish. I have seen the fish with extended air bladders and it makes you cringe because most will die. I am guilty of this, but I try my best to not do it. Now, if more people would only understand what they are doing to the fish, maybe we can put a stop to the practice. Again, I am sorry if I sounded like I was singling you out, because that was not my intention.

Genoa and the like are a bit “over the horizon” for me (too far to drive from Cedar Rapids) and would require some additional licenses outside of my beer budget. But I think the Belgian makes some good points that I wanted to weigh-in on, and in the least, express some solidarity.

Many of us are “weekend-warriors” and will be for a long-time, or at least until we retire, if the good Lord keeps us here that long. If you are stuck with a day-job to put food on the table and make the mortgage payments, unless you take “vay-kay” you’re stuck being one of the multitude out on a cold Saturday morning, bobbing below some navigation dam (if you want to vertically jig in deeper water).

Not all of “us” are intent on keeping every fish we can; but let’s face it, its nice to take home 3-4 fish for a nice meal every now and again. I will say, I have caught a fish with its bladder extending into its throat. It happened last December near Guttenberg, and when I did, I kept the fish. It was an eater-sized sauger, so the fish would have died anyway since I was keeping some for the pan that day. It was my first time witnessing the phenomena, and when I did, I adjusted my technique a little (shallower) and did not have the problem anymore that day. I remember even showing my buddy the fish and pointing out that we should mover a bit shallower and watch for any bursted air bladders. I am new to the river and walleye/sauger fishing, so I have a lot to learn. IDA posts and articles have been a great education. What I have gathered from the more experienced posters is that it is generally accepted that 25 FOW is good limit to mimimize air-bladder mortality. Of course, that is just a guideline, not something we should take as Gospel.

Some will disagree with me, but I think the best way to deal with this important issue are education and legislation. Education being trying to fish shallower than 25′, where possible, and slowly playing fish in. Short of hoping that we “weekend warriors” leave the little fishies alone and are gentle with them, your only other option is legislation; which is exactly what Iowa and Illinois have done from Dubuque downstream with the December-March closures below the major tailwater staging areas.

I don’t want to start an argument either, just present things from another POV… You guys are all too kewl to argue with. If we were in a bar, next round is on me.

Regards,

Joe

No offense taken. Being a father of a young son who loves being out on the river I want him to be able to enjoy this wonderful resource also. I am glad to see others who value the river and wanted to keep it the great fishing resource it is. If I responded a little to loud; I apologze. I can’t think of another place I would rather live. I have passed up job promotions to stay in the La Crosse area and probably will continue to. I feel very fortunate to live were I do.

Ok, maybe “weekend warriors” statement was a little strong for what I was getting at. Beleive me, I know all about working to survive in this world. But, there is a big difference between those who know, those who don’t, and then there are the ones who really don’t give a damn . Those who know ,like 99% of us on this site, will stay away from the deep holes. And I agree with you on the education part. That would eliminate those who don’t know. Then there are those who could care less and there is very little you can do or say to change their minds . I would strongly disagree on any legislation to stop fishing the dams in the spring. I myself do not keep many fish to eat, do I think a person should only C&R? Heck no, keep what you want as long as it is within the legal limits. That is your rights, that goes for eyes, bass , and any other fish you prefer. I realize there are times when you may have to go to 30 fow to get into the fish. I also don’t feel playing them slow makes any difference in whether the air bladder extends. I have tried it playing slow and fast, with the same results. This will be an ongoing problem and will probably never stop

Face it folks, 99% of the rediculous #’s of the boats out there in the spring are keeping about every legal fish they get until they have reached the limit. That is a fact.

I have boycotted the dams. No way will I fish the pack, that is not my idea of fun nor is it any type of outdoor experience. There are actually lots of fish nowhere near the dams.

Point is, all that aluminum out there is keeping fish, and lots of them. Why argue. I’ll see ya about 10 miles downstream.

I agree, Rip. I fished pool 14, Clinton IA, late last November and tried the “dam” thing. I was one of maybe 20-30 boats in that flotilla. We were catching cigar saugers and doing nothing but stressing young fish that had no business being caught, in all honesty. Nothing I caught in that area was close to eater size and they all got thrown back. I was fishing some shallower holes, but not everyone else was.

After an hour or so, we got sick of playing bumper boats and headed downstream. I pulled out some 3-way double rap rigs for us to troll along the channel edges and wingdams, shortly therafter, we started connecting on some more quality fish. With the slot, we did not get any trophies or many eaters that day, but we were able to fish in peace and have a good time.

All that being said, as Amwat points out, there are times when vertical jigging the tailwaters is an effective and enjoyable technique. On my trip to Guttenberg, we parked a good 1/2 mile below the rollers downstream and worked some 15-20′ drop-offs nobody else seemed interested in. You know what? We started to get into some nice saugers, with no hassle or bumper boats to deal with. Unfortunately, once we netted a few decent fish, we were “discovered” and then had some company come in for a closer look…

There are fish farther downstream, for sure.

Regards,

Joe Jiacinto

I for one am in favor for closeing the dams in the winter. I have seen positive results already on pool 14 with alot of bigger saugers last year. This year can only get better. Pulling a fish out of 30’of water most likely will kill the fish. It would be impossible to say we will keep it open but you cannot fish deeper tha 30′. No one will do that. My hats off to the dnr`s that made that decision. One thing I will say is that they should close even and odd dams on alt years. This way it would keep open some and close some,up and down the river.Everybody will benefit and not have to drive far to the next dam.

John when are you coming up to prefish. I will be on the water all weekend and then again Thur and Fri. See you next week.

Troy

I will be there wed night,fishing thurs and fri. I wont be in my boat,my partner has a new triton. I dont know what color but if I see you i’ll wave to ya. John

Had fun in Genoa today. Purple/white ring worm, Junebug and Catapla Super doos all work great. The fish were in groups scattered in the main channel. 20FOW. Alot of 14inch fish. The only CPR fish was a 20.5″ Walleye. I kept three 15″ and one 17″ saug. and one 15.5″ walleye for the table

This was her lucky day

Was out yesteday from 8am till 3pm….I fished south of the dam..We managed to boat over 50 fish; 6 small ‘eyes, 1 came in at 16″ and the rest were saugers. I grew up fishing this dam and the tail waters of it. Went to DeSoto Highschool. I keep mostly saugers for the table. Fat females get to go back and spawn. As for weekend warriors, first off I’d like to point out that 90% of the people I see at the ramp in Genoa are either rude, inept, or just plain incompetent. If it were up to me, there would be a test.
I normally fish the weekends because I am must work to keep the bills paid and food on the table. You can bet Id rather fish during the week and avoid the ramp follies.

Hey Wade, George says hi